There must have been a thousand pumpkins on this tree, hung high and
on every branch. A thousand smiles. A thousand grimaces. And
twice-times-a-thousand glares and winks and blinks and leerings of
fresh-cut eyes.

And as the boys watched, a new thing happened.

The pumpkins began to come alive.

One by one, starting at the bottom of the Tree and the nearest
pumpkins, candles took fire within the raw interiors. This one and
then that and this and then still another, and on up and around,
three pumpkins here, seven pumpkins still higher, a dozen clustered
beyond, a hundred, five hundred, a thousand pumpkins lit their
candles, which is to say brightened up their faces, showed fire in
their square or round or curiously slanted eyes. Flame guttered in
their toothed mouths. Sparks leaped out their ripe-cut ears.

The Halloween Tree,
my favorite Ray Bradbury book.
I remember stumbling across it at my grandparents house one summer and absolutely loving it.
I managed to pick up not one,
but two copies of the book since then.
The imagery of the book closely describes the feeling I used to get as a young kid living in Transylvania County
(you know,
the birthplace of Count Dracula and all cool Hallowe'enish things).

But the crisp air?
The crunch of dry leaves under your feet?
The feeling that summer is gone,
winter is coming?
Of Christmas carols dominating the radio for the next two months?
Not so much here in South Florida.
Bunny is sitting outside in her shorts,
waiting for the little hellions some kids to show up,
yell the obligatory “Trick or treat!” before loading their outstretched bags with sugar bombs.
I'm sitting inside,
where the A/C is keeping the place cool.

Obligatory Miscellaneous

You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go
ahead, I won't bite. I promise.

The dates are the permanent links to that day's entries (or
entry, if there is only one entry). The titles are the permanent
links to that entry only. The format for the links are
simple: Start with the base link for this site: http://boston.conman.org/, then add the date you are
interested in, say 2000/08/01,
so that would make the final URL:

You may also note subtle shading of the links and that's
intentional: the “closer” the link is (relative to the
page) the “brighter” it appears. It's an experiment in
using color shading to denote the distance a link is from here. If
you don't notice it, don't worry; it's not all that
important.

It is assumed that every brand name, slogan, corporate name,
symbol, design element, et cetera mentioned in these pages is a
protected and/or trademarked entity, the sole property of its
owner(s), and acknowledgement of this status is implied.